In the Three Kingdoms period, the opening scene features the killing of Huang Gai, shocking Zhou Yu!

He casually picked up a scroll and handed it to Lu Cui, who was standing next to him:

"Wenwei, you read it!"

"Choose the one about Chenliu water conservancy!"

Lu Cui didn't care about any of that.

Unfold the bamboo slips,

He read it aloud:

"I humbly believe that in ancient times, Yu the Great controlled the floods by dredging rather than blocking, thus bringing peace to the nine provinces... The waters of Chenliu today originate from..."

Lu Cui recited the words while shaking his head.

The entire text is filled with classical Chinese phrases.

They read for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, and still hadn't gotten to the main point.

Zhao Yu lay on the chair with his eyes closed.

I feel like I'm about to fall asleep.

Just as Lu Cui was reading with great enthusiasm and was about to quote from the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

"stop."

Lu Cui was interrupted and looked annoyed.

"What insightful opinion does the Chief Secretary have? This passage has not yet reached its most exquisite point..."

"Brilliant my foot!"

Zhao Yu sat up straight.

"After reading for so long..."

"I only understood one thing."

"It's raining in Chenliu, the river has risen, and it might flood."

"Is that right?"

"Uh... roughly... that's the idea."

"What's the point of those next thousand characters? How many bamboo slips are there already? Aren't bamboo slips free?"

Zhao Yu pointed to the bamboo slips,

"Should we write a eulogy for the river god?"

"Or is it the river god who needs your sacrificial text?"

"If the water rises, repair the dikes! If you don't have money, apply for it! If you don't have enough manpower, mobilize troops!"

"You've rambled on and on for so long, by the time you finish reading, all the people of Chenliu will have swum all the way to Xuchang!"

Zhao Yu snatched the bamboo slips away.

Pick up that big seal with the word "Get out".

Covered in red clay.

boom! !

A glaring red character was directly overlaid on that exquisite article.

Lu Cui stared at the red characters, his whole being breaking down.

"Next."

Zhao Yu threw the bamboo slip in his hand onto the ground.

Yang Xiu's hand trembled slightly.

He doesn't believe in superstitions.

He then pointed to one of his subordinates:

"You! Read this 'Application for Sacrificial Expenses from the Ministry of Rites'!"

The subordinate read aloud tremblingly:

"Ritual is the foundation of a nation... As the year draws to a close, it is necessary to prepare three kinds of sacrificial animals..."

"stop."

Zhao Yu yawned.

"How much?"

Subordinates:

"what?"

"I'm asking you how much you're applying for?"

After searching through the bamboo slips for a long time, his subordinates found the answer in the sixth slip:

"At...at the very end, I'm requesting 500 gold coins."

"Was all that preceding nonsense meant to explain that pork prices have gone up?"

Zhao Yu picked up the seal.

roll.

"Rewrite it. Just write: The Ministry of Rites purchased 500 taels of gold for a sacrificial ceremony. I won't approve it if you add even one extra word."

Next.

Inside the Chief Secretary's office, a one-sided massacre unfolded.

"This article contains an incorrect use of classical allusions. Get out!"

"This handwriting is so ugly, it makes my eyes dizzy. Get out!"

"This... um? It praises the Prime Minister for being handsome?"

Zhao Yu hesitated for a moment.

The character "阅" was changed.

"Although it was flattery, the attitude was at least proper."

"But then again, can't we focus our energy on the important things? Send it back, don't write it."

Half an hour.

The ground was already piled with bamboo slips covered with the word "roll".

Take seven or eight clerks,

My voice is hoarse from reading.

Their proud works of parallel prose, rhapsodies, and essays...

In Zhao Yu's eyes, they all became waste.

"I've read them all over once."

"Registrar Yang, you're the only one who didn't read it."

Zhao Yu took a sip of tea to moisten his throat.

"Your turn."

"Don't let your men take the fall, why don't you do it too?"

Yang Xiu took a deep breath.

He had absolute confidence in his article.

This is absolutely his masterpiece.

The language is exceptionally ornate; it was written to praise the Bronze Sparrow Terrace.

"In the Jian'an era, the weather was favorable... The Prime Minister's achievements were unparalleled, and a high platform was built to commemorate him..."

"Okay, okay, okay."

Zhao Yu picked at his ear.

"Yang Dezhu."

"You're not going to change this habit, are you?"

"Can't you just speak like a human being?"

Yang Xiu was furious:

"This is a matter of imperial dignity! How can we use colloquial language?"

Zhao Yu stood up.

He walked up to Yang Xiu.

"Decent?"

Zhao Yu's gaze could devour him.

"The Prime Minister only sleeps for two hours a day."

"And we still have to read the hundreds of thousands of words of nonsense you've piled up for the sake of 'respectability'."

"Is this what you call dignified?"

"That's murder!"

"The time it took to assassinate the Prime Minister! The efficiency with which he murdered a great man!"

Zhao Yu reached out and snatched the bamboo scroll from Yang Xiu's hand.

"So you're bragging about the Bronze Sparrow Terrace, huh?"

Zhao Yu picked up his pen and wrote on the back of the bamboo slip...

He quickly wrote a few large characters.

Project: Tongquetai.

Purpose: entertainment, troop deployment, and showcasing achievements.

Why write this: To praise the Prime Minister's kindness and virtue.

Finished.

Zhao Yu picked up the approval stamp and stamped it on.

Then he slapped the bamboo slips back into Yang Xiu's arms.

"In the entire article, apart from the three words 'Tongquetai,' which are the real substance, the remaining two thousand words are all fluff."

"Registrar Yang".

"Are you trying to scam me out of money by charging me based on word count?"

"What do you know, you martial artist!"

"Give me a break."

"Gentlemen, now that I have become the chief secretary..."

"Listen up, all of you!"

"I'm a rough man, I don't have time to watch you guys spouting off your erudition."

"From today onwards, the Chief Secretary's Office shall establish a new rule."

"All official documents must meet six requirements!"

"Who? Where? What are they doing? Why? When are they doing it? How are they doing it?"

"I don't need your classical Chinese phrases."

"What I want to see is, at noon, in the southwest corner of Wu Commandery, three hundred swordsmen, killing Sun Quan in the dead of night. Understand?"

"Anything that can't be explained clearly."

"Any preamble exceeding one hundred words."

"Anything that makes me see 'Alas!' more than three times."

"Go back and rewrite them all!"

"Take all your writings back to your workplace. You're not allowed to leave until you've finished."

The public housing was deathly silent.

Lu Cui shrank back, not daring to speak.

Ding Yi was relatively honest; he squinted his eyes, seemingly lost in thought.

The seven or eight clerks didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

Yang Xiu held the bamboo slips.

Not angry.

His hands were shaking, his beard was shaking, his whole body was shaking.

That's angry.

It's also embarrassing.

"You...you..."

Yang Xiu clutched his chest and swayed.

"I'm not feeling well... I have heart palpitations... I need to take leave!"

He then used a move called "tactical lean back".

The men rushed to help him up.

"Registrar! Are you alright?"

"Wait a minute."

Zhao Yu stood up.

He walked up to Yang Xiu.

At this time, Yang Xiu,

He clutched his chest, his brows furrowed.

It was also making hissing sounds as it breathed.

If you didn't know better, you'd think he was about to pass away.

Zhao Yu didn't say anything, just crossed his arms.

He looked at Yang Xiu face to face.

I stared at it for a good long time.

"Registrar Yang".

"Your illness has a rather sophisticated way of flaring up."

"Weren't you quite happy when you were asked to read the official document aloud?"

"Why do you feel a pain in your chest just because I asked you to revise an official document?"

Yang Xiu weakly opened his eyes.

Avoiding eye contact:

"This is...this is a sudden attack of anger...a relapse of an old ailment..."

"If the Chief Clerk does not believe me... he may summon the physician..."

"Why call him a physician? It's a waste of money."

Zhao Yu reached out and touched Yang Xiu's forehead.

"Your complexion is rosy and your forehead is glowing. Apart from being a bit thick-skinned, you don't look sick at all."

"You're in your mid-twenties, in the prime of your life."

"How could someone be so weak?"